First, we’d like to wish all our readers a happy, safe, and prosperous New Year. We hope that, in 2009, you’ll have time to enjoy your precision rifles, and spend more time at the range, hopefully with good friends that share your “addiction to accuracy”.

We are working on a major site upgrade for 2009. This should make the site faster and easier to navigate (with better access to the archives). The Forum, Bulletin, and site content will be better integrated. Plus we can make the Classified Ads section in our Forum much more user-friendly. We also plan more product tests. We have a brand new 6-6.5×47/6.5×47 switch barrel rifle ready for testing. This will help us provide data for a planned 6.5×47 Cartridge Guide. We’ve also assembled six chronographs for a chrono comparison “shoot-out”. And we will continue to showcase a wide variety of accurate rifles in our ongoing “Gun of the Week” feature.

But to do all that, we need your support.

As your Editor, Moderator, Photo Guru, Videographer, and Site Programmer, I’m maxing out on the number of hours available in each week (I work 7 days a week on the site). For the site to continue to expand its content, we need to bring in paid helpers. Right now, Google Analytics estimates the site reaches over 50,000 shooters every WEEK. If the majority of those users could provide a small donation every year, we could deliver MORE stories, MORE tests, MORE Gun of the Week features, and provide more of the photos and videos everyone enjoys. (Yes commercial sponsors help greatly, but their contributions alone won’t do the job.)

In the past quarter a couple dozen guys have generously donated to the site. I want to again thank all those who have contributed. But that still leaves tens of thousands of users who use the site regularly without contributing one penny.

Here’s my proposal. First, if you have used our FREE Classifieds to successfully sell your rifles or shooting gear, consider sending in a dollar or two from your sale proceeds. Second, for those who use the site regularly, consider donating One Dollar a Month. That’s less than the price of a cup of coffee and much less than many websites now charge for their “premium content areas”. Consider this — what do you pay for a movie ticket these days? Probably $7-8 dollars for 90 minutes of escapism. For a buck a month you can help this site provide a YEAR’s worth of info, tests, and shooting news that you won’t find anywhere else.

Making a donation to the site is simple and easy. Just scoll down to the bottom of this page and click the DONATE Button to make a donation. You don’t need a Paypal account to contribute. Any sum is welcome — donations need not be large. If 20% of our readers gave even $5.00 a year we could hire a staffer to do research, create videos, and help with field tests.

If you don’t like Paypal, you can send a check. Make the check payable to our Asst. Editor Jason Baney, list your Forum Name (if any), and mail the check to:

Molded polymer stocks are light and inexpensive. However, they tend to be flexy and hard to bed. Savage has engineered a solution to this. The new Savage “AccuStock” employs an aluminum inner section combining a bedding block with a “spine” in the forearm. According to Savage: “With its integral aluminum spine that runs from the action down the length of the forearm, the AccuStock is the most rigid factory polymer stock in the marketplace. No matter how hot the weather or the barrel, the forend stays rock-solid and the barrel remains free-floating.”

The aluminum cradle surrounding the action is more than a conventional bedding block. The AccuStock uses a wedge bolt to push the recoil lug back into the aluminum spine to prevent any movement forward and aft, while the bedding cradle squeezes the action from the sides when the action screws are tightened. That is something new, and it seems like a promising design. Savage explains: “Pillar-bedded and v-block stocks, as good as they are, only apply bedding pressure on one axis, up and down.” By contrast, the new AccuStock is designed to grip the action from the sides as well as the bottom.

The AccuStock bedding block system will be initially offered in just two Savage models, the Model 10 FCP, and the Model 10 Precision Carbine. The 10 FCP comes in .308 Win and .223 Rem, and features a 24″ fluted, heavy barrel, a detachable Box Magazine (DBM), and a new (for Savage), factory muzzle brake. The Model 10 Precision Carbine will also be chamberd in .308 and .223. It will have a 20″ medium-contour barrel, detachable box magazine, but no muzzle brake.